Yet, astonishingly, before she was even thirteen years old, she walked out of her father’s home announcing she was going to join the Church of England. She would have heard all the arguments against the Church of England and in favour of dissent thoughtfully and persuasively argued. Contact with the Puritans ← ⤒ □ĭuring her childhood, Susanna’s household enjoyed frequent visits from some of the leading dissenting ministers of the day: Thomas Manton, Richard Baxter and John Owen were some of the best-known. More likely, she was a Christian who spent most of her life somewhat confused about the complementary role of faith and the works of obedience and it is delightful to know that before her life ended, she was given a firmer assurance of faith. Her sons, John and Charles, spoke of an experience two years before her death as her conversion – an experience that “ended her long legal night”. At times in her life she talked of the need for faith and a belief in the heart but at others she seemed to rely on the testimony of her own good works. It is difficult to know when Susanna actually came to believe savingly in Christ. Susanna grew up to have an excellent command of language and it is well known that she possessed a theological knowledge superior to many ministers of her day. Her mother was a serious Christian, and was studiously energetic in instilling the Christian faith in all her large family. He became in time the beloved pastor of a large dissenting congregation in London, well-known as a preacher who fed them the meat as well as the milk of God’s Word. Her father, Samuel Annesley, was one of those ejected from the Anglican ministry for his refusal to adhere to the new Anglican Prayer book issued in 1662, after Charles II came to the throne of England. From both her parents she inherited strength and decisiveness of character. Susanna was the youngest in a family of 25 children. But as someone has once said, our greatest strength is often also our greatest weakness. Of course such strength of character can be a quality the Lord uses in His service and there is plenty of evidence that this was so with Susanna. By nature Susanna herself was more than a little headstrong and the strength of her own will doubtless contributed to her many troubles in life. Marriage to the erratic and headstrong Samuel Wesley was only one of her difficulties. The truth is, Susanna had a very difficult life. Our Greatest Strength is often Our Greatest Weakness ⤒ □ Said she: “I’m certainly glad Susanna wasn’t my mother!” That’s it, I thought maybe, at last, a biography that makes Susanna into a real woman! I was not disappointed. But then one day, I overheard a woman student (mother of four) in my church history class at Bible College recommending a biography of Susanna 1 to a man who was planning to give it to his wife as a gift. This kind of portrait seems one-dimensional, and unattractive. Does she seem too good to be true? All the usual biographies portray her as some kind of frighteningly efficient home schooler with a huge family or a super-mother in time management overdrive. Perhaps I’m perverse, but I’m often tempted to avoid Susanna. She was the mother of John Wesley, the evangelist, and Charles Wesley, the evangelist and hymn writer.
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